Hampshire's Historic Parks and Gardens

Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens Caption One of Hampshire County Council’s priorities is: Most are privately owned, and their owners take on ‘enhancing our quality of space. This priority is a significant responsibility in looking after these allIntroduction about making the county a good place to be assets for future generations. by protecting local distinctiveness and diversity, Designed for owners, managers, users and all ensuring excellent facilities, respecting Hampshire’s with an interest in Hampshire’s historic parks and heritage and planning proactively for the future’. gardens, this booklet: Hampshire has a wealth of historic parks and • introduces parks and gardens gardens that contribute greatly to the character, • recognises the importance of parks and gardens diversity and distinctiveness of its landscape. • demonstrates and explains how parks and Parks and gardens are very important parts of the gardens may best be protected and conserved landscape, recording cultural changes, social history • explains where to find more information and and attitudes to the natural environment. advice on conserving and managing parks and They are a key part of the county’s rich and gardens. varied heritage, and their care greatly enhances Hampshire’s landscape. Introduction: Conserving Hampshire’s historic parks and gardens ContentsWhat are historic parks and gardens? Hampshire’s parks and gardens Research, conservation and management Information, advice and grant aid Crescent Gardens, Alverstoke. References Front cover: Detail from Southwick Park. Drawn by Knyff and engraved by Kip (1708). The Beacon and walled garden, Staunton Country Park (Leigh Park). Back cover: Fan trained fruit trees, Houghton Lodge. The rose garden, Mottisfont Abbey. Tree fern, Holly Hill Woodland Park. Detail of Mr London’s design for the gardens at Herriard, May 22 1699. Hampshire Record Office 44M69/P1/61, Jervoise of Herriard Collection. Highclere Castle from Beacon Hill. 2 Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens Chawton House. What are historic Dating from the medieval period to the present parksday, Hampshire’s and historic parks,gardens? gardens and other designed landscapes include: • ancient remains of medieval deer parks • earthworks as evidence of former parks and Walled Garden, Staunton Country Park. gardens • the landscapes of country houses, including parks, pleasure grounds, kitchen gardens and ornamental woodland • the designed gardens and grounds of houses • plant collections • public parks and open spaces • cemeteries and churchyards • designed landscapes forming Parkland, Chawton House. the grounds of institutional or business premises. The Royal Hospital, Haslar. Durmast House, Burley. Oram’s Arbour, Winchester. Aldershot Military Cemetery. Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens 3 View from the terrace Hinton Ampner, Bramdean. Hampshire’s parks Deer parks Inand medieval gardens times, deer parks were large enclosed areas of land used mainly for keeping and hunting Earth bank remains of the Deer Park Pale, deer. They were quite densely wooded, with areas of Chawton Park Wood. wood pasture and more open areas referred to as Many deer parks are no longer obvious in the launds. They were surrounded by a large ditch and landscape but can be identified from remains of bank, topped with a fence known as a park pale. The the park pale, as at Hursley Park and Chawton right to enclose land and form a park was obtained Park Wood. Place names such as park, warren and only by the direct grant of a licence from the king. A lodge may also reflect their former use. Many of further privilege granted by the king was the right to Hampshire’s great parks started as medieval deer construct a deer leap. This was a lower section in the parks, for example Bramshill and Hackwood Parks, park pale that allowed deer to leap into the park but evolving into landscape parks. not out. Fallow Deer in the New Forest. 4 Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens Queen Eleanor’s Garden, Winchester. Medieval to early eighteenth century gardens Gardens in the medieval period, developed from their monastic origins, were small and ornamental, enclosed within walls, with raised beds, arbours and a central pool and fountain. A garden of this period, Queen Eleanor’s Garden, has been recreated outside The Great Hall in Winchester. With the dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540, some monastic buildings and grounds were acquired to form large estates and redesigned as country houses and gardens, for example at Beaulieu, Mottisfont Abbey. Mottisfont, and Titchfield. Gardens of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries developed as expansive and elaborate layouts of walled enclosures, often with: • knot gardens (designed in a square frame and sown with aromatic plants and culinary herbs) • raised walks • small man-made hills known as mounts from which to view the surrounding countryside. There are few surviving features of these gardens in Hampshire, although they can sometimes be Parterre at Basing House. identified using archaeological evidence. Within the remaining walls of Basing House, one of the largest private houses in the country in the sixteenth century, a formal parterre has been recreated next to a pigeon-cote tower. Derived from the earlier knot gardens, the parterre is a flat-terrace garden with geometric patterns of flower beds and low The troco terrace, hedging. At Bramshill Park, some elements of the Bramshill Park. seventeenth-century garden survive, including the ‘Garden Ornament’ by troco terrace used for bowling (troco being an old Gertrude Jekyll and English game also known as lawn billiards). Christopher Hussey, Country Life (1927). EARTH Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens 5 Detail from Southwick Park. Drawn by Knyff and engraved by Kip (1708). During the seventeenth century, gardens became larger and more formal, with terraces, parterres, avenues, canals and ornamental woodland known as wilderness reflecting the style of the Italian Renaissance, and the influence of French and Dutch ideas. There is some archaeological evidence of the formal gardens created in the seventeenth century, such as at Southwick Park. There, the layout of terraces can be identified in the undulating ground, now part of a golf course. A number of tree avenues – a feature of the Hampshire landscape – for example at Lainston House, Hale Park, Bramshill Park and Hackwood Park, originated in the designed Seventeenth century garden pavilion, The Vyne. landscapes of the seventeenth century and the start of the eighteenth. Their river-valley position made parks such as Hurstbourne and Warbrook well suited to the construction of formal canals in the French style early in the eighteenth century. Caption The Lime avenue, Lainston House. Warbrook House, Eversley. 6 Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens The Temple or Rotunda, Highclere Park. The English Landscape style During the eighteenth century, the formal French style gave way to the more natural English Landscape style, which idealised nature and emphasised irregularity, with no obvious walls or boundaries. It included classical sculpture, antiquities and landscapes inspired by the Grand Tour of Europe (a long voyage, popular among rich young men, to learn about European cultural artefacts and society). The siting and construction of the Temple or Rotunda (circular building) in Highclere Park is a good example. Another feature that developed during this period was the ha-ha, a sunken fence or concealed ditch creating the impression that the grass sward (expanse) of the garden was seamlessly joined to the surrounding landscape, grazed by animals. Probably one of the first ha-has in Hampshire was designed by Charles Bridgeman at Westbury House, East Meon in the 1720s. There is another at The Wakes, Selborne, home of the naturalist Gilbert White. The ha-ha at The Wakes, Selborne. Detail from a plan for the design of Old Shrubberies being replanted in the Pleasure Grounds of Old Alresford Alresford Park by Richard Woods, 1764 . Park, following the original design by Richard Woods. Courtesy of Mike Hall. Left: Sales Map for Lady Mildmay of Shawford Park,1811, showing a formal canal probably dating from about 1690-1720. Hampshire Record Office 46M72/E38. Hampshire’s Historic Parks and Gardens 7 Extract from first edition six inch Ordnance Survey map, 1873. The majority of parks in Hampshire are characteristic of the English Landscape style of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They are informal parklands of grazed permanent pasture, with single trees and clumps of trees, irregularly planted. They often have serpentine (curvaceous) lakes and water features, and are enclosed by woodland belts. They were designed to be appreciated through carefully composed views from the house, garden, approach, and walks and rides through the park. One proponent of the Landscape style was Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1715–83), who was involved in designing a number of estates such as at Highclere Park, Broadlands, Cadland House and North Stoneham. William Emes, who worked in a similar style to Brown, lived for a while at Elvetham and is said to have done work at Dogmersfield Park. Another follower of Brown, Richard Woods, prepared a landscape design for Old Alresford Park in 1764. This was only partly implemented and the current owners are now using the design to restore the parkland. A feature of some parks is the widening of rivers to create the appearance of a large river or lake. Brown widened the Test at Broadlands, Lord Rivers gave the Loddon the dimensions of a fine river at Stratfield Plan showing a series of views in relation to the house Saye, and the river was dammed at The Grange in and planting. Based on an illustration in ‘How to layout Northington to create two lakes. Many Hampshire a garden’ by Edward Kemp (1858). parks and gardens, including Cadland House and Pylewell Park, exploit coastal views, particularly towards the Isle of Wight. Dogmersfield Park. Engraving by J Landseer from drawing by W S Gilpin, published for the Rev. Bingley 4 June 1808.

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